rwbeagles-got a dog over 70lbs? I'd like to hear from ya

Uh, I posted and it disappeared!  Apologies if it reappears and makes this a duplicate!

I was kinda with Glenda - I go by cals and weigh the food the first time I use it.  I'm math challenged but this doesn't take but a second, and eliminates guesswork for me.  Important when my dogs really need the food to go-go-go - I don't want to short them or worse accidentally overfeed them and knock them out of the work rotation with an upset tummy - and if my livestock guardian dogs are feeling under the weather this time of year, lambs can die.

I measured food by the pound when I fed a food that shall remain nameless, by your request.  Lu, older spayed female, 90 pounds, got 1 1/2 pounds.  I'd guess that was close to six or seven cups.  Tully, intact male 150 pounds, got close to three pounds.  I didn't think of it in terms of cups, or my head would explode.

Then I got a clue and switched them to a more concentrated ration.  Lu eats 3 1/2 cups and Tully eats 4 1/2 cups, and they both get about a pound of raw meaty bones - except now when the Dead Cow Diner is open for business.    They help my neighbor get rid of the downed and culled cows he has composting on the back of his property.

I had them on an also nameless grain free for a while, and they ate even less of that, but then I discovered that they were slipping over and eating from the calf creep feeder, and the expression about throwing one's pearls before swine came to mind.

 

oh the first one posted Becca, lol! But it's nice to see it again anyways...LOL! Thanks for the input.

There's PLENTY of info here in the section on the "how why" of measuring. If/when I need that I'll poke around for it. Rest assured no life altering is meant to go on here...just info, because I am nosy.

Great thread. This puts things in to perspective for me considering Neiko is only 49 lbs yet he eats as much as a 75+ lb dog!

I think that the majority of people feed relatively the same quality of food which will pack about the same kcal give or take a couple hundred so, unscientifically, this is a good way to compare imo! ;) 

Willow (6.6 y/o female Golden): 1 cup, twice per day...slow metabolism
Oakley (5.4 y/o male Golden): 1.5 cups, twice per day...average to fast metbolism
Myrika (20 mo female GSD): 2 cups, twice per day...very fast metabolism

When I feed home-cooked, they get around a cup or so of rice or quinoa, 1/2 cup of veggies, and 8 or more oz of meat protein (chix, turkey, fish, etc) per meal. These amounts are approximate...like a dash of this, or a dash of that, lol.

Treats are not given everyday...but usually come in the form of bananas, carrots, peanut butter, biscuits, and frozen yogurt.

To regulate weight, if needed, I just up the exercise or decrease the amount of food.

rwbeagles, it's a leonburger puppy you got?  I suspect you'll be feeding around 10 cups per day 6 months to 1 year, then mature at around 5 cups depending on the dog's metabolism and activity level.

River, 140lbs, 2 cups twice a day - 3.5 years old.

Brooke, 38 pounds, 1 cup twice a day - 2 years old

Hailie, 30, 1 cup, once a day - 4 years old.

I don't know how much Coke weighs, but he probably should be around 70lbs, maybe a little more, considering his size.  He is 1.5 years old, your breed guess is as good as mine.  Since I don't really know his weight, I just go by what *looks* right.  I keep him very lean because he may have HD, but I don't like to see his vertibrae and try to keep the hips sticking out to a minimum (because of his structure, they always do stick out a bit).

Right now, he gets 5 "scoops" a day.  A "scoop" = a 1/2 cup measuring cup except the food is kept in a cubby hole and is over my head and when I reach in and scoop the food, the "scoop" amount is more like a heaping 1/2 cup.  He gets one "scoop" in the morning, to coax him into the crate.  He gets 4 "scoops" for dinner.  He also gets to lick all of my dinner dishes (as long as they don't contain something bad for dogs).  He gets about two jerky strips worth cut into training treats and also two little Milk Bone treats before bed.  Sometimes he helps himself to trash, dishes in the sink, the open dishwasher, and an occasional cat poopie if I'm not paying attention. 

Here is a visual: 

The scooper
 

A "scoop"

Since the dogs got all excited that I was randomly scooping food, I let them help themselves
 

Jaia - 18-month-old GSD - 75-80 lbs (very lean) ~3 cups per day

(B'asia - 13-month-old GSD - eats the same, but she's only 60 lbs)

Cara and Mia - 6 years old 65-70 lbs (Rottie chunkiness) 2 cups per day 

Hope that's clean enough.  

2 cups of Kord's dinner:

MY dinner plus left overs for a week

Jaz is a 75ish pound pit bull (my sister's). When on kibble, he eats 2 cups per day. Mostly kibble with around 350-400 calories per cup. He really doesn't get much exercise though.

Cherokee's around 60 pounds (I know! 70+..but I'm just sayin) and eats the same amount as Jaz, sometimes a little more.

My other sister's aussie/pyr mix is like..75-80 pounds, and eats (I think) 3 cups a day, of a kibble that has almost 500 calories per cup. He also doesn't get much exercise, and he's a little chunky.

OK, will try not to get technical here.....

My gsds range from 70-93 lbs....all nice lean muscle.  They all get right around 4 cups per day.  If someones getting a bit skinny from the bitter cold I add an extra handful or so to each meal.  It's about half a bowl full, so I really eyeball more than I actually measure.  Handfuls of homecooked are a bit sloppy....

 I know you don't want scientific but it really is easier once they stabilize to go by kcal because all the foods are different.  Bugsy gets about 2500 kcal a day as a modest estimate, he's 2.5 and 105lbs and lean and muscular. 

Dane/gsp/boxer/hound/lab go figure!

Generally he gets about 4.5 cups of kibble a day with kongs making up the extras. He eats two main meals a day but nearly always gets meat/veg table scraps.  The cup measurement is one we got from our vet with a 5lb bag of SD when we adopted him.  It is supposed to measure a cup/8 oz

As Mudpuppy said though when he was a pup goodness gracious it was a ginormous amount of food.  I do try to feed kcal dense food so he doesn't have to eat a million cups.  I can recall him being on 8 cups at one point of some food.  He was fed 3 meals until at least 8 months old due to the amounts fed at each time

If Gina uses science text books as a pillow, she's a better man than I.  I find them too uncomfortable and horribly boring, which impedes my ability to drift off.  I sleep BEST when there is something REALLY good on TV that I really, really want to watch.

Bevo, 75lb, 4 year old, very active, very lean Doberman.  When he was eating kibble, he ate 5-6 cups a day along with 2 cans a day.  Now he eats 4-5 lbs of raw daily.  Usually in the form of entire animals.  It's pretty simple just to hand him the whole duck, rabbit, turkey, quail, chicken, or fish.